


Comfort and Joy

by carolinecrane



Series: down is where we came from [12]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-26
Updated: 2010-09-26
Packaged: 2017-10-12 05:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinecrane/pseuds/carolinecrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The more things change, the more your family stays the same. Dinner with the Puckermans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comfort and Joy

The first thing Kurt does when he shows up for dinner is cockblock Puck. And yeah, okay, he'd been upfront about the whole 'no sex in your mom's house' thing, but Puck didn't know kissing was included in that. He'd let Puck kiss him goodbye in front of his dad, after all, so Puck wasn't expecting to lean in for a decent hello, only to be shoved backwards.

"What are you doing?" Kurt says, hissing the words through clenched teeth, eyes wide like Puck just tried to shove his hand down Kurt's pants or something. "Do you think I want your mother's first impression of me to be watching you shove your tongue in my mouth?"

"Well she's gonna have to get used to it sometime," Puck answers, but he lets go of Kurt anyway.

He knows how nervous Kurt is about this, and he figures the sooner they get the introductions over with, the sooner he'll unclench and remember how much he likes kissing Puck. Then he'll start thinking about how much this stupid rule of his sucks and get with the program again, so Puck can skip one hello kiss in the interest of things getting back to normal as quickly as possible.

They find his mother in the kitchen, fussing over dinner and pretending she didn't hear the doorbell.

"Ma, this is Kurt." Puck grips Kurt's arm and drags him through the door to the kitchen, giving him a gentle shove into the room. "He's scared of you, so be nice."

He only says it to watch Kurt's cheeks turn bright pink, and that's exactly what happens. Kurt's mouth opens and he looks at Puck, speechless and _pissed_ and yeah, Puck's probably going to pay for that later. Then Kurt turns back to his mom, flashing the tight-lipped smile that shows exactly how nervous he is, and just like that, his mom's expression changes.

Puck knows his mom, and he knows she's still not all that crazy about the fact that he brought a guy home for Hanukkah. He thinks it's mostly because she figures him getting serious with Kurt means less chance of her having grandkids she can actually spoil someday. And that's just stupid, as far as Puck's concerned, because he'd kind of like to give the whole dad thing an actual shot someday, and there's no reason he can't do that with Kurt. Burt and Carole would eat that shit up, after all, and if Hudson continues on his current track to Loserville, Kurt's their only real shot.

The odds of ending up with a wallet full of wrinkly baby pictures isn't the only problem, though. There's also the fact that his mother was probably expecting Puck to bring home somebody a lot different than Kurt. Tougher, maybe, with thicker skin and a face that didn't show exactly what he was feeling the second he felt it. Somebody more like Puck, less polite and more likely to stand his ground in a fight.

And he wasn't lying when he said his mom isn't as bad as she sounds, but she doesn't give anybody a free pass. Except as soon as Kurt goes all red and tries to fake a smile the fight goes right out of her, like she can tell just by looking at Kurt that he really _is_ afraid of what she's going to think of him, and somehow that means he passes the test.

"You're not too big for a spanking, Noah Puckerman," she says, waving a wooden spoon in his direction, like she has ever once followed through on that threat. "Your Kurt is our guest, and you'll treat him with respect while you're under this roof."

She swoops down on Kurt before he knows what's happening, ushering him into a chair at the table and offering him a drink and the guest cookies she keeps under a glass cover.

"Thank you," Kurt says as she hands him a tall glass of milk without even asking what he wants. And it's whole milk, which is a far cry from the skim Kurt keeps in his own fridge, or even the 2% they compromise on at Puck's place, but he takes a tentative sip anyway.

"It's such a relief for Noah to finally bring someone home," his mother says, still waving the wooden spoon around as she checks on whatever's simmering on the stove.

"Granted, I didn't expect it to be a man," she adds, and Puck tenses, because if they really are going to have this fight, he doesn't want Kurt to hear it. "But if that's what makes my Noah happy, so be it. God has a plan for all of us."

The way she says it implies that she doesn't always agree with God's take on the situation, but Puck doesn't call her on it. Fact is, he doesn't much care if she approves or not. But it's important to Kurt, so he's grateful that she's making an effort.

"To be honest with you, Mrs. Puckerman, until a few months ago, I wouldn't have expected Noah to bring a man home to meet you either," Kurt says, smiling for real this time and then they're off, talking about him like he's not even in the room. This must be what it's like for Kurt when he and Burt talk about sports, Puck thinks, and he spares a moment to be grateful his mother hasn't figured out how to use Facebook.

When he tunes back into the conversation they're finally off the apparent shock of his bisexuality and on to Kurt's design school, and when they start throwing around words like Gucci and Prada, Puck makes a break for it. He ducks out of the kitchen and into the relative safety of the living room, picking up the remote and flipping through the channels in search of the Ohio State game.

"Coward."

Puck pauses in his channel-surfing to glance over his shoulder at his sister. She's smirking at him from the doorway, and he rolls his eyes as he turns back to the TV.

"I'm not hiding. I'm just checking the score."

"Sure you are." She crosses the room and parks on the couch behind him, pulling her legs up to sit cross-legged. When he finally finds the game Puck throws himself down next to her, sprawling across the couch until she has to unfold herself enough to kick him back onto his own side.

"So this guy you abandoned in the kitchen with Ima…"

"Kurt," he says, like she doesn't already know that, because _she_ has no trouble with Facebook at all.

He glances at her in time to catch another smirk, and he has to remind himself that he grew out of putting her in a headlock a couple years ago.

"Right. So this guy. Is he, like, the _one_?"

It's sort of tempting to play dumb, to say, "the one what?" and let her smirk at him some more. But this is the whole reason he brought Kurt home, so he figures there's no point in denying it. "Yeah."

If he didn't know her so well he'd miss the way her eyes go big for a second before she catches herself and pulls it together. She's a teenager now, which means she spends like 98% of her waking hours trying to pretend she doesn't care about a goddamn thing. Puck remembers what that was like, so he doesn't call her on it. Instead he stretches his arm along the back of the couch, pretending to watch the game while he waits for her to say something.

"So you're like officially gay now."

That's not exactly true, because he can still appreciate a hot chick even now that there's no chance of banging her. But his kid sister probably doesn't need to hear that, and anyway he's not planning on banging anybody but Kurt anymore, so it doesn't really matter what she calls it. He just shrugs and glances at her, raising an eyebrow when he finds her staring at him.

"That okay with you?"

"Like it would matter if it wasn't," she says, but he can tell what she means is 'yes, of course, don't be an idiot'. He grins and leans over until he can reach her shoulder, then he shoves her off balance and sends her rocking back into the couch cushions.

"Ow, jerk," she complains as she straightens up. "Keep your gay cooties off me."

Puck laughs and reaches out again before she can stop him, pressing his whole hand over her face and dragging his palm across her nose and mouth. He hears her muffled protest, but he just laughs again and digs his fingers into her hair.

"Bastard!" she yells when he finally lets her go, hands flying to her hair to rake it back into place. He's still laughing when a throat clears behind him, and Puck glances over his shoulder to find Kurt watching from the doorway.

"Hey, babe," he says, grinning at the way Kurt's cheeks flush. "I'm impressed; it took you less time to escape my mom's clutches than I thought."

"No thanks to you," Kurt answers. "I see you two are…catching up."

"Just making sure Sarah doesn't miss me too much while I'm gone, right, Sis?" Puck says, grinning at his sister. She's scrambling off the couch, most likely in search of a mirror, hands in her hair and Puck thinks about telling her that Kurt's the gay one in their relationship, so she doesn't really have to worry about her hair in front of him, but he knows it would just piss off both of them. Instead he turns off the TV and stands up to follow her out of the room.

"Tell Ma we'll be there in a few minutes," Puck calls after her as she ducks into the hallway bathroom and slams the door behind her. Once she's gone he catches Kurt's hand and tugs him down the hall away from the kitchen.

"Where are we going?" Kurt asks, and yeah, he knows Puck pretty well, because he already sounds suspicious.

Puck doesn't answer until they reach his old room. He pulls Kurt in after him and shuts the door, then catches Kurt by the shoulders and pushes him back against it. "You still owe me a kiss."

He doesn't wait for an answer. Kurt's mouth is open to argue, but either he hesitates or Puck's just that much faster, because he dips his head and presses their lips together before Kurt gets a word out. Hands land on his hips, fisting in the fabric of his shirt as Puck takes advantage of Kurt's surprise to push his tongue past Kurt's teeth. For a few seconds Kurt kisses him back, chest pressed up against Puck's and making needy little noises in the back of his throat, and fuck if that's not the hottest thing Puck's heard all day.

The last thing he wants is for Kurt to leave, to go back to his dad's house and leave Puck all alone in his old room. It's like two full weeks of Thursdays back-to-back, and he can't remember anymore why he thought it was such a good idea to come home for Hanukkah when it means sleeping without Kurt the entire time.

For a few seconds it feels like maybe Kurt's wondering the same thing, and when his hands leave Puck's hips to slide up his chest Puck thinks maybe he's going to say fuck it and agree to stay right here for the rest of their trip. But instead of working open the buttons on Puck's shirt, Kurt's hands flatten on his chest, then he's shoving Puck off balance again and pushing off the door.

"Your mother is putting dinner on the table," Kurt says, voice low and dangerous and even though Puck knows it's because he's righteously pissed, it still makes his dick twitch. "And then you're all going to have to open presents and…and…eat _cake_ or something, and I would like to be able to look your mother in the eye over the kosher wine, if you don't mind."

Puck rolls his eyes and doesn't bother pointing out that his mother draws the line at Manischewitz. He doesn't even try to stop Kurt when he pulls the door open and slips back into the hallway. He's got a back-up plan, after all, and okay, so he was planning to save it until it was closer to Christmas, but that was before he knew just how serious Kurt really was about the sex ban.

Puck picks up the envelope from his dresser and follows Kurt out of the room, catching up with him in the hall right outside the bathroom his sister's already vacated.

"Here," he says, pressing the envelope into Kurt's hand. He resists the urge to press a kiss to the corner of Kurt's mouth, just to wipe the surprised expression off his face. "Open it alone."

He walks away before Kurt can answer, heading straight for the kitchen to help carry the boatload of food he's positive his mother's made to the table. Sure enough, there's enough food to feed the whole neighborhood, but at least it gives him something to do while he waits for Kurt to turn up again.

And he takes his damn time about it, but finally Kurt emerges from the hallway bathroom, still blushing and when Kurt slides into the chair next to him, Puck can see that his hair's kind of wet at the temples. He grins and reaches under the table to squeeze Kurt's thigh as his mother beams at them both.

"We're so happy to have you for such a holy night."

"Ima, this isn't that holy of a night," Sarah says, and Puck barks a laugh at the look their mother shoots her.

"Relax, Ma, it's Kurt's first Hanukkah. He doesn't have anything to compare it to, so you can't fuck it up for him."

"Watch your language," she says on auto-pilot, and Puck grins again and steals a glance at Kurt. He's still blushing, and when he looks over and catches Puck watching him he blushes even harder. But a hand finds his under the table and squeezes hard, and Puck feels something in his chest spring open.

 _Oh, yeah,_ he thinks as he reaches for the tray of latkes at the center of the table. _I am getting so lucky tonight._


End file.
